In memory of Marcia J. Powell and all those prisoners who have suffered or died in the custody of the state.

The 'Friends of Marcia Powell' are autonomous groups and individuals engaging in prisoner outreach, informal advocacy, and organized protest and direct actions in a sustained campaign to: promote prisoner rights and welfare in America; engage the Arizona public in a creative and thoughtful critique of our system of "justice;” deconstruct the prison industrial complex; and dismantle this racist, classist patriarchy...

Retiring "Free Marcia Powell"

As of December 2, 2010 (with occasional exceptions) I'm retiring this blog to direct more of my time and energy into prisoner rights and my other blogs; I just can't do anyone justice when spread so thin. I'll keep the site open so folks can search the archives and use the links, but won't be updating it with new posts. If you're looking for the latest, try Arizona Prison Watch. Most of the pieces posted here were cross-posted to one or both of those sites already.

Thanks for visiting. Peace out - Peg.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

How to Make a Radical

Six-year-old Natalie Shea got a threatening letter from the city demanding the removal of “graffiti” she drew with chalk — with chalk!— on her front step. Here, Shea shows her defiance to the warning letter by creating a new work with the supposedly illegal medium.

The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg

Natalie Shea with her warning letter and the alleged graffiti.

------------A 6-year-old Park Slope girl is facing a $300 fine from the city for doing what city kids have been doing for decades: drawing a pretty picture with common sidewalk chalk.

Obviously not all of Natalie Shea’s 10th Street neighbors thought her blue chalk splotch was her best work — a neighbor called 311 to report the “graffiti,” and the Department of Sanitation quickly sent a standard letter to Natalie’s mom, Jen Pepperman.

Can somebody stop these bureaucrats before they Kafka again?

“PLEASE REMOVE THE GRAFFITI FROM YOUR PROPERTY,” the Sanitation Department warning letter read. “FAILURE TO COMPLY … MAY RESULT IN ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST YOU.”

Since when is a kid’s chalk drawing “graffiti”? Since the City Council passed local law 111 in 2005, which defined “graffiti” as “any letter, word, name, number, symbol, slogan, message, drawing, picture, writing … that is drawn, painted, chiseled, scratched, or etched on a commercial building or residential building.”

In other words, Natalie Shea is not an artistic little girl, but a graffiti scofflaw?

No. The law goes on to say that the scribbles can only be called “graffiti” if they are “not consented to by the owner of the commercial building or residential building.” But how could the 311 caller possibly be expected to know if Natalie had her mom’s consent to use chalk on her own front stoop?

“He could have just asked!” Pepperman said. “This whole thing is ridiculous. Admittedly, this drawing was not her best work — she usually sticks to cheerful scenes, not abstracts, frankly — but to send a warning letter like that is outrageous.”

Pepperman ticked off any number of daily insults to common decency on her block, including (but not limited to) dog poop, garbage from ill-kept homes, and noise from car alarms. But Sanitation didn’t get a 311 call about those indignities. It got a call about a 6-year-old’s drawing.

“The report came in as ‘graffiti,’ and, as you know, the city is trying to crack down on graffiti on private property,” said agency spokeswoman Cathy Dawkins.

“It’s a standard warning letter,” added Dawkins. “The property owner has 45 days to remove it or ask the city to remove it. We’ll inspect after that, and if the graffiti is still there, the property owner has another 60 days before we’ll write a summons.”

For sidewalk chalk that would dissolve at the first rain? Dawkins said the law is on her agency’s side.

“The instrument used — whether it’s paint or chalk — does not matter,” she said.

But if Dawkins is right, than the city has just criminalized hopscotch or drawing arrows to point neighbors towards a stoop sale down the block — as long as a neighbor calls 311 to complain.

In reality, chalkers have little reason to start using invisible ink. The city’s pre-eminent sidewalk chalk illustrator, Ellis Gallagher, says he’s outlining street furniture and other objects for years and never been arrested.

“Cops stop me all the time when they see me drawing on the sidewalk, but once they see it’s just chalk, they always let me go,” said Gallagher, a Carroll Gardens resident (see his work at www.myspace.com/ellis_gee).

“According the New York penal law, graffiti is the etching, painting, covering, drawing or otherwise placing of a mark upon public or private property with intent to damage such property,” said an NYPD spokesman.

When pressed to define “intent” or, for that matter, “damage,” the spokesman added: “If it can be washed away, it’s not graffiti, clearly, but it still could be criminal mischief. If I cover your car with mustard, that’s not graffiti, but it’s also not legal.”

Pepperman is holding firm that her daughter is a pretty artist and not a petty criminal.

And for his part, Natalie’s father, George Shea, hoped that his daughter wouldn’t learn the wrong lesson from her “graffiti” crime wave.

“I do love that kid,” Shea said, “but I wish she would stop capping my tags.”

AZ Police State

STOP FASCISM HERE!!! FIGHT SB 1070!

We Are Everywhere...

Decided to plant this in here with a widget as a permanent reminder to those out there struggling through life that we need you here. All the injustice, grief, and human suffering calls for us to stay and do everything we can about it while we're here. Don't give up the fight - your last shred of hope may just keep someone else alive, too.

Survival Guide for Earth Liberation Activists

Street Arts & Buskers Advocates

ON DIRECT ACTIONS, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, ETC.

Taking a cue from the animal rights activists (who usually don't even put their names and faces on their sites), I thought I should clarify a few things here.

The Friends of Marcia Powell and freemarciapowell.blogspot.com are not very organized, nor are we affiliated or associated with any other group or organization. We all just crash each other's protests to show solidarity. Me (Peg) - I'm just winging this stuff.

The information and ideas provided on this website are not meant to incite illegal actions or activities, even if it looks like that may be what we're doing. That's not to say we frown on civil disobedience; there's an important place in history for diverse tactics of resistance. We are each only responsible for our own actions, though.

The point is for folks to get involved in the 2010 political campaigns and challenge the BS around the prison industrial complex, but please be creative enough that no one gets hurt or arrested (well, a few lawmen and makers need to be indicted and disarmed, still, but we don't want any more of our friends getting into trouble.)

Do be advised: these are not nice people we're picking fights with, they far outgun us, they make all the rules, the game is already rigged, and if you piss the wrong person off bad enough in this state, you don't even need to break a law to go to jail or prison.

In any case, make sure you have the number you'll need to call for help from jail written on your arm if you think you might get arrested. Live on the buddy system (keep an eye on each other for awhile and check the jail if anyone goes missing). Don't let things you're responsible for drag anyone else down; keep your loose ends neat.

Don't rat out your comrades, and don't automatically believe it if someone says that someone you trust ratted out you first. That's a classic tactic. So is trying to make you think that something perfectly legal you did is a crime. Just because it's secret doesn't mean it's criminal or shouldn't be protected.

Be true to yourself and the cause regardless.

If you have any questions about the legality of any direct action you are considering, we encourage everyone receiving this (or the) action alert(s) to check your local laws and ordinances and think about the possible consequences before proceeding to do anything. Not that you'd be on your own, but most of us are too poor to bail you out, and too politically disenfranchised to otherwise wrest you free.

July 29, 2010. Cesar Chavez Plaza/Wells Fargo, Phoenix.

Advocacy for women in Florida prisons

American Civil Liberties Union

National Prison Project Report

Mental Illness In Prison

Ill-Equipped: US Prisoners and Offenders with Mental Illness

Death by Incarceration

US DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics: 2001-2006 Prison Deaths (pdf)

Gerlad & Maas' Nights Lantern

Excellent resource by our neighbors to the North on Human Rights, Political Prisoners, and the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.